Bwin.Party Defends itself against Megaupload Indictment

In the 72 page indictment by the US Department of Justice against Megaupload.com Bwin.Party was named as having spent $3 million in marketing to advertise on Megaupload.com’s sites. This week they have come out in defense saying that they were promised that there was no infringement of third party copyright taking place on the sites.

After being named by the Department of Justice in their indictment against Megauplaod, Bwin.Party has spoken out defending itself against any possible blame.

The marketing executive for Bwin, John Shepherd, said that they had “no knowledge about any of the alleged activities undertaken by Megaupload.” Shepherd went on to say that they are a “completely innocent party” and the Department of Justice had just included details of their contract to show how much money was going into Megaupload.

Furthermore, Shepherd claims that their contract with Megaupload.com stated that “the content of the vendor websites do not infringe the Intellectual Property Rights of any third party”.
The indictment from the Department of Justice said, “PartyGaming’s advertising contract with the members of the Mega Conspiracy was initiated on or about November 12, 2009 and has resulted in payments of more than $3,000,000 to the Conspiracy. This contract was still active as recently as on or about March 18, 2011.”

As a result of the indictment seven men linked to Megaupload.com have been charged with various offences ranging from copyright infringement to money laundering. The US authorities are claiming that Megaupload.com made profits of over $175 million through illegal means. Prior to being taken down, the website was boasting that it was receiving more than 50 million visitors every day.

At present the founder of megaupload.com, Kim Dotcom, is under arrest in New Zealand following a police raid on his luxury home and he is currently waiting to be extradited to the United States.